The Nutrition of Turnips

You probably haven’t heard much about the nutritional value of turnips. Actually, turnips are recommended for a healthy diet plan or just for overall healthy meals. Knowing more about what is in your food is key to creating the best cuisine for your health and fitness goals.

Calorie Count

The calorie count on turnips is a little bit of good news. Nutritional estimates show that a 1 cup serving of turnips and turnip greens has just 57 calories and only 1 gram of fat. That’s a pretty low number when you think about all of the rest of the stuff that goes into your daily diet.

Protein and Fiber

It’s not just a low calorie count that turns people on to the health benefits of turnips. The same serving of this vegetable contains 8 g of carbohydrates, 5 g of dietary fiber and another 5 g of protein. That makes the turnip a good choice for “powering up” while avoiding a lot of the stuff that often comes with these essential nutritional elements. There’s just 2 grams of natural sugars in the 1 cup serving, and only 31 mg of sodium. That makes turnips a very healthy choice overall.

Vitamins

When it comes to essential vitamins and minerals, there is a laundry list of stuff found in turnips that will dazzle health-minded food shoppers. There’s plenty of vitamins A and C, as well as a bit of vitamin E and an astonishing amount of vitamin K, an element handy in blood coagulation. The vitamin K levels are actually one thing that dieters should be aware of with this food, as some existing medical conditions can require avoiding extreme vitamin levels. If you’re sensitive to coagulants or on blood thinners, talk to your doctor about weighing the benefits if introducing turnips or similar foods to your plate.

Turnips have a little bit of almost everything, including thiamin, riboflavin and folate, an important nutritional element for pregnant women and others. With all of this great stuff included in turnips, it’s worth thinking about how to integrate this vegetable into your meals. Turnips can be prepared in many different ways. Classically, they have been part of soups and some Eastern Eauropean or Russian entrees. Some modern cooks like to experiment with different uses of turnips, including a mashed dish or as a component in exotic items like shepherd’s pie, a UK favorite.

Use your imagination in finding ways to get turnips onto your plate, and you’ll be benefiting from some of the specific health boosters that nutritionists often recommend as a way to promote longevity and quality of life through getting the right types of foods into your diet.